APIs Will Put YouTube Features on Other Web Sites

March 12th, 2008 | Category: Tech Talk

If you thought YouTube was everywhere, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The popular Web site for user-supplied videos announced Wednesday that it will supply application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow even more access from other sites and applications.

The APIs will let developers upload videos to Google-owned YouTube from other Web sites, or play YouTube’s videos on other sites. The expansion could convert YouTube from primarily a hub of user-supplied videos to a hub of services providing video and personalization features across the Web.

‘Chromeless’ Video Player

YouTube already allows other sites to present or search YouTube videos, but the new tools will let developers essentially turn a site or online application into smaller and separately branded versions of YouTube. A “chromeless” video player, for instance, can be stripped of the YouTube type, added to another site, and marked with that site’s look and make.

YouTube said the free APIs will help it reach beyond the browser so users can

“discover and share compelling video composition wherever they are.”

It added that the tools supply “wholesale access to our extensive video library, worldwide audience, and the underlying video hosting and streaming infrastructure that powers YouTube.”

Builders of Web sites and Net-connected software will be able to customize and control their own player, allow videos to be uploaded to YouTube, and enable users to comment and rate videos from the site or application. data like titles, descriptions, ratings, favorites and the like can be added, and the top-rated videos in various locales can be chosen.

‘Spraying Content’

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said YouTube’s APIs are part of a larger trend of “spraying subject matter across the board” by the Web, and YouTube is doing it in a big way.

Even TV networks and movie studios are spreading substance with the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture Hulu.com, which launched…

Orginal post by Computer blog from technology-blog.com

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